LONDON, Ont. — Justice finally came for Victoria Stafford late Friday when a jury convicted Michael Rafferty of taking, raping and killing the eight-year-old girl in a secluded Ontario field more than three years ago.

It took the nine women and three men roughly 10 hours to decide Rafferty was guilty of first-degree murder, sexual assault causing bodily harm and kidnapping.

Members of Stafford's family burst into tears and hugged each other as the verdict came down. Rafferty, meanwhile, sagged visibly in his seat and closed his eyes as the guilty verdicts were read out in court.

The murder verdict carries with it an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 25 years. A sentencing hearing will be held next Tuesday; Stafford's family is expected to deliver victim impact statements.

"I knew we would see justice," said Rodney Stafford, Tori's father, outside the courthouse — where observers and passersby cheered and shouted their joy over the verdict. Passing motorists honked their horns.

Asked about his feelings when he heard the verdict, Rodney Stafford replied that he "wanted to scream in the courtroom, but I just couldn't . . . But at the same time a sense of loss because Tori's not coming home."

When asked about evidence found on Rafferty's laptop that jurors were not allowed to hear during trial — evidence that Rafferty was a consumer of violent child porn — Stafford said the jurors are certain to feel relieved when they learn of it.

"They are going to be very amazed . . . it was all for this little girl here," he said, holding aloft a picture of Tori.

Rafferty had pleaded not guilty. He did not testify. His high-profile trial, which began on March 5, has heard from 62 witnesses and has seen 190 exhibits entered into evidence.

Doreen Graichen, Tori's grandmother, told reporters the verdict made her feel "like I can breath again.

"Tori has justice. That was all we ever wanted," she said, smiling through tears.

"What we've been feeling inside for the last 3 years (has) been hell. This has almost been like a release for us. It's just amazing."

The girl's mother, Tara McDonald, left the courthouse with a smile on her face and did not speak to any reporters.

Crown prosecutor Kevin Gowdey said he was pleased with the verdict. He took no questions but did make a short statement in which he thanked the jury and investigators for their work in bringing a long and difficult trial to conclusion.

"Our thoughts are with Victoria's family" he said. "We believe justice was done."

Police officers who worked on the Stafford investigation expressed joy as they spoke to media Friday. Many had tears in their eyes.

Woodstock police Insp. Bill Renton, formerly of the Ontario Provincial Police, led the investigation into Stafford's disappearance. It remains the largest police operation to date in the province's history.

"Tori was truly our inspiration for the past three years," he said Friday.

"I know that we all found . . . inspiration and our drive from a very special girl and that was Tori Stafford," said OPP Det. Insp. Mike Bickerton.

Defence lawyer Dirk Derstine said his client was disappointed by the verdict. It's unclear if he will file an appeal, which must be done within 30 days.

"We have no regrets," he said. "We did everything we could to ensure a fair trial for Mr. Rafferty."

Over the past few years, Derstine has endured criticism for taking the legal aid case due to the strong public emotions attached to such a trial.

"The reality of it is that everybody in our system deserves a strong, proper and effective defence," he told reporters Friday. "It's easy enough to say just because we empathize with the child, and empathize with the family . . . Mr. Rafferty is somebody's child too.

"Anyone of us would wish if this was our child, that was brought forward and accused of terrible things, they would get a fair trial before anything else happened to them."

Two years ago, Rafferty's ex-girlfriend, Terri-Lynne McClintic, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in Stafford's death. The 21-year-old was also sentenced to life in prison.

The Grade 3 student was last seen alive outside an elementary school on April 8, 2009 in Woodstock, Ont., a small city west of Toronto.

Her bludgeoned body was found in a fetal position on July 19, 2009, wrapped in garbage bags and buried under a rock pile in a field near Mount Forest, more than two hours north of where she was last seen.

The girl was found wearing no pants or underwear.

An autopsy determined that she had died from multiple blows to the skull, likely caused by a hammer. She also had 16 broken ribs and suffered a 15-centimetre cut to her liver.

For the last 10 weeks, the jury heard complex, and often disturbing evidence in the trial.

The jury, which was sequestered late Thursday night, arrived at their verdict without knowing that Rafferty was interested in sex with children and that up until the day the little girl was abducted, he had used his laptop to look up several disturbing search terms, including images and videos of underage rape.

Part of this long Internet history included a "substantial" amount of child pornography, including "how-to" videos and slide shows on sexually assaulting children and even a "snuff" film — which depicts an actual murder — that featured a child.

This evidence was just some of the explosive details gathered by the Crown that was excluded from the murder trial due to its highly prejudicial nature and what was ruled as being obtained with the use of an incomplete search warrant.

From the beginning, prosecutors believed Rafferty and McClintic, lovers at the time, had deliberately planned to kidnap the girl, sexually assault her and then kill her because she was old enough to identify them if she was ever released.

The Crown argued Rafferty manipulated McClintic, a troubled, drug-addicted young woman, into being his "violent pawn" and willing partner in the plan.

The court saw video surveillance of a car suspected to be Rafferty's in the area of Stafford's school three times earlier that day.

During six days on the stand, McClintic testified that on a few occasions before the kidnapping, Rafferty had driven her around schools and to homes of single mothers telling her that it would be easy to "take" somebody. She told the court she was the woman in the white ski jacket last seen walking with Stafford on surveillance video after school on April 8, 2009.

That day, she said, she was dropped off at the school by Rafferty who dared her to get someone young, because they would be easier to manipulate.

Stafford was by herself. She was supposed to walk home alone for the first time that day.

McClintic approached the girl and asked her if she liked dogs, and if she was interested in meeting a Shih Tzu named Precious.

When they got to the car, she shoved Stafford inside and made her crouch on the floor of the vehicle, covered her with a black pea coat.

While the couple were driving along Highway 401 out of Woodstock, Rafferty turned to her and said: "You know I'm going to f--- her, right?"

They made three stops along the way; one at a Tim Horton's to buy tea, another to buy drugs from a friend of Rafferty's and the last was so McClintic could buy a hammer and garbage bags at a Home Depot in Guelph, Ont.

She told the court it was Rafferty's idea to buy the murder tools.

As they made their way to a secluded clearing near Mount Forest, McClintic said Rafferty began masturbating.

There, up a dirt laneway, and away from the main road and homes, Stafford was repeatedly raped in the back seat of the car, said McClintic.

She told the court at one point, Rafferty called her back to the car and she took the girl away from him so the child could use the washroom.

McClintic held Stafford's hand so she wouldn't fall.

She testified that she saw blood drip onto the snow from the young girl's genitals.

When she was done, the girl begged her to stay with her. McClintic brought the girl back to the car and tried to hold her hand as the sexual assault continued, she told the court.

It was too much for bear and she left, abandoning her. She said the sexual assault brought back a flood of memories from her experience with childhood molestation.

"When I turned to the vehicle, when I saw what was going on, all I saw was myself when I was that age and all the anger and hate and rage that I had . . . that I built up towards myself came boiling out of me," she said.

This rage drove her to grab the hammer and use it on Stafford. The girl's limp body was then put into bags and tossed onto a rock pile. The couple then lifted heavy rocks on top of her remains.

The couple then put the hammer, their clothes and the child's clothes into a garbage bag and drove to Cambridge, Ont. They threw out other clothing on a nearby side road and on the highway.

At the car wash, they cleaned out the vehicle. On the way back to Woodstock, McClintic cut out chunks of the blood-stained car back seat. It was eventually removed and never recovered by police.

Until January 2012, McClintic had maintained that it was Rafferty who had put a garbage bag over the girl's head and then kicked, stomped and fatally struck her with the hammer.

Stafford's blood was found in Rafferty's car rear doorway, and her DNA was found on a spot of blood mixed with two others on a gym back in his 2003 Honda Civic.

If you wear glasses, take them off. Dunk them in a puddle, shake ‘n’ bake them with some grit from the shoulder of the road, scrape away what you can with your glove, and then put them back on. That’s the view too many people believe is good enough to have through the windshield of their car.